The First Time The World Ended
by celrock
Summary: We all know the story Angelica told the babies in the season 3 Rugrats episode, The Sky is Falling, about the last time the world ended prior to this episode's existence, two years prior, but what really happened? Read this short little one-shot, to find out!


Author's Note: And now for my release slash update for March 7, 2017, after watching The Sky is Falling last week, and writing that alternate take on the episode, I was thinking about the story that Angelica told the babies about the first time the world ended before they were born. Now we all know her to exaggerate the truth, but I strongly believe something actually happened, that she had a bit of help interpreting differently from what really happened, seeing she was only a baby at the time, and here's my idea of what really happened, and what brought on Angelica's belief that led to her story she told the babies in the original season 3 episode.

The First Time The World Ended

Summary: We all know the story Angelica told the babies in the season 3 Rugrats episode, The Sky is Falling, about the last time the world ended prior to this episode's existence, two years prior, but what really happened? Read this short little one-shot, to find out!

Disclaimer: I do not own the original Rugrats characters, they're the property of their original creaters. The OC's of Anthony and his father William, are owned by sovietlollipop.

It happened one summer day after Angelica's first birthday, and the dreadful curling iron incident, that left a permanent scar on her cousin's cheek. As horrible as her cousin was, the innocent Angelica C Pickles didn't dare try to challenge her two-year-old cousin, for fear of hurting him again, something he'd never let her live down, and while she hoped she'd never have to see him again after that, sadly, that wasn't the case, as once again, William had a business trip to attend to in Yucaipa, California, and needed a place to leave his son. While he didn't exactly get along with his sister Charlotte all of the time, he didn't have much choice in the matter, and so, he reluctantly left his son with his sister, brother-in-law, and niece. Little did anybody know what they'd be in for later that very day.

The day more or less, started off peaceful, as little Angelica enjoyed playing with a large plush rag doll she had at the time, that she found comforting and a great playmate when nobody was around, while Anthony stayed on the other side of the living room, playing with his new Captain Blasto action figures and a toy spaceship he had recently received as a present from his maternal grandmother, who still sent him gifts from time to time, despite his mother being deceased. At the time, it was raining outside, so playing indoors was a must, but soon on top of it raining, something else was about to hit without warning.

"I must save the galaxy." Anthony made his Captain Blasto figure say, as he placed him in the spaceship and sent him flying across the room.

No sooner had the spaceship landed over in the playpen, where Angelica was now coloring on some paper with a set of crayons, when it happened. All of the sudden, the room started to shake violently.

"AAAHHH!" Angelica screamed, whailing at the top of her lungs.

Normally, Anthony found such noise unbarable, and he so wanted to beat Angelica shamelessly in the back of the head as revenge for the curling iron incident just a short few months ago, but even he, too, was plumb terrified at that very moment, as the two-year-old blond boy ran up to the edge of the playpen, holding on to it for dear life.

"It's the end of the world Angelica." Anthony blerted out.

The one-year-old blond just stared at him in shock, but didn't have time to speak, as pictures on the walls fell on to the floor, and several pieces of furniture skitted across the floor.

The two toddlers were shaking violently, and sadly, neither Drew nor William were around, because Drew was off at work, and William was off at one of his business meetings, leaving Charlotte to care for the kids. As usual though, she was busy in her office upstairs on one of her long phone calls with her assistant Jonathan, when the phone call cut out and the house started to shake.

"Oh my goodness! Jonathan? Jonathan!" Charlotte screamed into the phone, but nothing could be heard on the opposite end.

She tried to walk out of her study downstairs to check on her daughter and nephew, but the house was shaking too badly to allow her to move, as she held on to the door frame of her study for dear life, until the earthquake passed. The shaking went on for several minutes, much to everyone's horror. Even Drew and William at their respected places were holding on to furniture for dear life along with their fellow co-workers when the earthquake struck.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the shaking stopped, but while things were calm again, a lot of damage had been done. Worried for their families, Drew and William felt it best to try to get back to the Pickles residence. Unfortunately, the earthquake caused a great deal of damage, making it nearly impossible for anybody to drive. Realizing this fact, William phoned his sister, to inform her of what happened.

"Are you kids okay in here?" Charlotte asked, when she was finally able to walk downstairs to the living room after the earthquake had stopped.

She gasp upon seeing her living room in a shamble. Pictures once hung on the walls lay on the floor, the couch had slid clear across the room, and her daughter and nephew were huttled together in a corner of the playpen, still looking shocked over what had recently happened.

Before she could get over to them, her phone rang in her pocket.

"Hello?" Charlotte asked, picking up the phone and putting it on speaker.

"Charlotte it's me, William. Afraid I'm stuck at my meeting longer than anticipated because of the earthquake. The main road out of here has been blocked off due to a mountain that crumbled, and I'm finding out there's been some flooding in several areas." William said over the phone.

Overhearing the conversation, due to Charlotte having William on speaker, the two blond toddlers looked out the window to see that several trees had fallen, blocking the road, and water from the sewers was rising at an alarming rate.

"Yep, it was the end of the world all right." Anthony said.

"Are you sure about this?" Angelica asked, a bit confused.

Anthony grabbed the collar of her orange shirt and forced his cousin to stare into his face.

"Of course I'm right pigtails, it's been the end of the world, and we just happened to live through it." Anthony hissed.

Angelica wanted to spout something back, as she didn't like it when her cousin spoke to her in that nasty fashion, but for once, she actually felt he was right. It was obvious by how things looked, and that fact that her uncle William was trapped. Meanwhile, Charlotte received a call waiting beep on her phone.

"Hold on William, I've got another call." Charlotte said into the phone, as she clicked over to see who was on the other line.

"Hi Snookims." Drew could be heard from Charlotte's phone.

"Daddy!" Angelica cried excitedly, hearing her father's voice.

"Drew, how many times must I ask you not to call me Snookims?" Charlotte asked.

"Listen, the earthquake has me stuck at work until the flooding has gone down. We had major flooding in my area of town, and it's too dangerous to try to drive right now." Drew said.

The toddlers didn't hear what Charlotte had to say in response, because Angelica started crying.

"It's true! It's been the end of the world, and daddy can't come home!" She wailed between her sobs.

"Quiet mimbrain." Anthony snapped, covering Angelica's mouth so tightly with his hand so that she could barely get a sound out.

The rest of that day was spent getting the house back in order, or at least, what could be put back that hadn't been permanently damaged. Some of the pictures though, were badly cracked, leaving splinters of glass in the carpet which Charlotte, much to her dismay, had to vacuum up, so as to not get ridiculed by her brother for exposing her daughter and his son to dangerous conditions once he was finally able to return. At a point early in the evening, Angelica was growing bored, as Anthony had found his Captain Blasto figurine and spaceship, and was off playing again, so she tottled out of her playpen over to the television, which was low enough to the ground that she could reach the buttons on the front panel to turn it on. However, she was met by an unpleasant surprise upon turning on the television. Static was before her on the screen, making a loud, unpleasant sound.

"What's going on? There's nothing on TV!" Angelica cried, pressing the buttons to change the channel, only to get static on every station.

In actuality, the earthquake had knocked out the cable, but Anthony, being so smart and clever, approached his younger more gullable cousin, and told her what he thought to be the truth.

"Don't you know Angelica? When the world ended, all the television shows were canceled." Anthony explained.

Angelica gasp, continuing to stare at the static filled television screen.

Neither one of their fathers came home that night, and Charlotte was forced to feed what little food they had left on hand for dinner, since a trip to the supermarket never made it to the top of the list that day, and there was no way to get there until roads were opened up and repaired from the damage caused by the earthquake. All she had on hand was two cans of broccoli chetter soup which she fed to her daughter and nephew, unfortunately, Angelica couldn't stand the broccoli, as she spit it out, sending chunks into Anthony's face across the table.

"Hey! Cut that out!" Anthony cried, as Angelica just giggled, pointing to the top of Anthony's head, where a piece of broccoli had landed in his blond hair.

Several days passed. The damage was slowly cleaned up from the earthquake, and while Drew and William were stuck for two days at their work and business meeting locations, they were finally able to get out on the third day and drive home, as the water level had died down, and roads were being slowly repaired. Come the end of the week, William and Anthony headed back home to Boston, and the cable had been repaired, bringing more than static to the television again. Angelica was playing with some blocks on the floor the Saturday following the earthquake, while her mother went into work for a few hours and her father was watching her, when the news came on the TV.

"And in local news the citizens of Yucaipa, California, felt the world had ended as a result of the recent earthquake that occurred. Rivers overflowed, making traveling imposible, mountains crumbled, knocking over several trees, power lines and cable lines, and many people were stranded, with very little food. Construction workers and rescue teams, are working slowly, to restore the balance of this town, as we see to getting back on our feet." The news ancorer reported.

Angelica's eyes went wide when she overheard the lady on television.

" _Wow! Anthony was right! We did live through the end of the world after all._ " Angelica thought to herself.

And that's, what really happened. From that day forward, Angelica firmly believed that she had indeed, lived through the end of the world, and two years later, when Chuckie approached her with the comment of the sky most likely falling down, while she had technically not been looking out the window at the time of the earthquake, the news report and Anthony's words, as well as snippets of the incident rang fresh in her head, causing her to recall fragments of that event, two years later.

The End

Author's Note: I know, it's a bit short, but when I heard Angelica tell that story to the babies in that episode about the last time the world ended, I always figured that in actuality, it was probably an earthquake that took place when she was only the age of the original Rugrats during the bulk of the series, before they were born, but I could also see her cousin Anthony planting the idea of the world ending in her head, and that news cast once cable was restored, giving the young one-year-old Angelica that impression, as well as how the world looked as a result of the earthquake. However, it's easy to not remember things clearly from infancy and toddlerhood as you get older, being the case here. I hope you all enjoyed this interesting interpretation I had of an event in Angelica's life prior to the events of Rugrats, and to sovietlollipop, if you're reading this, I couldn't remember if Anthony's parents divorced or if his mother died, so huge apologies if I got that wrong here. Also, the mentioning of the curling iron incident was a reference to a flashback brought up in Sovietlollipop's story, Angelica's Adventure. Anyway, I do hope everybody enjoyed this story, and be looking for more material from me, coming soon!


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